Eliana Willis

Three miles north of the Manhattan court room where Sam Bankman-Fried went on trial, a very different investigation into the nature of money is taking place—the setting is the Morgan Library & Museum and the examination in question is an exhibition into the rise of the monetary economy in Medieval Europe. The centralized systems that FTX rebelled against were, in some ways, born in the 12th and 13th centuries as agricultural advancements—helped by an ecological “warm period” during the Middle Ages—and expanding trade routes that brought an economic revolution to the continent.
Banks were established in Spain, Northern Europe, and the Italian city-states to facilitate increasingly complex and widespread financial transactions. Coin production duly boomed, a fact apparent in the first display visitors encounter at “Medieval Money, Merchants, and Morality”: a dull pile of low-value coins, the likes of which were minted in high volume to lubricate the economy.

Coins from the Chalkis hoard in Greece, late 14th century. Photo: courtesy of American Numismatic Society, New York.
“Previously mints produced few coins and these were of high value. This situation couldn’t sustain growth at all levels of the economy,” said exhibition curator Diane Wolfthal. “After the year 1100, more coins, including lower-value coins, began to be produced, which were essential for market penetration into the everyday life of ordinary people.”
As money flowed into every facet of Medieval life, uplifting some and indebting others, it brought forth a litany of ethical complications. Chief among these was the quandary over how to pursue wealth and yet lead a good Christian life. Fitting then that the former personal library of J. Pierpont Morgan should play host to such questions.
The American banking giant was a devout Episcopalian and, if the 16th-century tapestry that still hangs over his East Room is anything to go by, he may have grappled with the inherent corruptions of wealth. Triumph of Avarice, designed by Netherlandish artist Pieter Coecke van Aelst, shows the personification of the deadly sin riding out of Hell and past the corpses of the gluttonous.
Triumph of Avarice, Willem de Pannemaker ca. 1534-1536. Photo: courtesy The Morgan Library & Museum.
Elsewhere, Hieronymus Bosch chimes in through Death and the Miser, a work on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It is, as ever, a work of anguish, trickery, and—to modern eyes at least—searing wit. Death slips a slender ankle across the threshold and tempts a dying man to ignore the angel lingering at his shoulder. Will he choose the gold in his strongbox or turn to God? Bosch leaves the decision to the viewer.
Characteristically, works from Morgan’s collection ground the exhibition, which runs through March 10. There’s a register frontispiece from a Bologna lending society that shows a goldsmith at work in a room swirling with the precious metal. A kindly Hans Memling portrait of an Italian merchant holding a pink flower serves as a clear, if obvious, reminder that the Northern Renaissance was largely funded by a class of newly minted merchants.
Hieronymus Bosch, Death and the Miser (ca. 1485–90). Image: courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Most notable, however, are the Medieval manuscripts, of which Morgan was a greedy collector. Together, they show how money slipped into seemingly every aspect of Medieval life. It made financial planning possible, as shown in a 16th-century calendar commissioned by royal chamberlain Philibert de Clermont, which recommends men to begin gathering their retirement resources at the age of 48.
It fueled urban vice and gambling, presented in the illustration of an epic German poem on sin showing three criminals huddled around a dice game. It deepened social inequalities which prompted the church to act as a financial benefactor to the poor and give alms, as depicted in the prayer book of Queen Claude of France.
Gerard of Villamagna Soliciting Alms for the Poor, from Vita Christi (Life of Christ). Illuminated by Pacino di Bonaguida and workshop Italy, Florence, ca. 1300–25. Image: courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum.
Although concerns of money’s corrupting power became more pressing in this period, they weren’t, of course, entirely new. There were lessons aplenty in the Bible with the virtues of frugality preached by Jesus, St. Francis, and St. Antony, all of whom are portrayed at the Morgan.
It’s a reminder not of a simpler time, but rather of a world gripped by the same questions and stereotypes as today. Take the stigmatization of Jews, Wolfhal says, or the categorization of poor people as undeserving, or religious narratives used to justify the extraordinary wealth of a few (think of today’s prosperity theology or indeed effective altruism).
“I hope visitors will see how complex Medieval discussions of money were, and think about the role money plays in their own lives,” Wolfhal said. “We have much to learn from the Medieval past.”
See more images from the exhibition below.
Frontispiece from a register of creditors of a Bolognese lending society Illuminated by Nicolò di Giacomo di Nascimbene (ca. 1394–95). Image: courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum.
Hans Memling, Portrait of a Man with a Pink (ca. 1475). Image: courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum.
Hugo von Trimberg Der Renner (The Runner), Gamblers and Criminals (1476–99). Image: courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum.
Andrea di Bartolo, Joachim and Anna Giving Food to the Poor and Offerings to the Temple, Sienna (ca. 1400–05). Image: courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Hans Holbein the Younger, Der Rychman (The Rich Man) (1523–26, published 1538). Image: courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

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The throne is an almost outmoded object in an age of fading monarchy. Still, the idea of a piece of furniture that confers a higher authority continues to hold sway in today’s political and cultural imagination. Consider the fancy seat Emmanuel Macron occupied during his inauguration, or the iconic sword-backed perch that anchored HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones. 
At the Paleis Het Loo in the Netherlands, a new exhibition is examining the symbolism—and surprising staying power—of the throne. Featuring about 70 objects, “The Power of the Throne” explores the history and contemporary relevance of this power seat, while questioning exactly what elevates a humble chair into a symbol of sovereignty.  
The show, said curator Niels Coppes in a statement, “will tell stories of different cultures through the lens of the throne: the defining symbol of divine and secular rule as a claim to power and authority. It will also invite visitors to reflect on the theme: ‘Is there a future for the throne?’” 
The Iron Throne from the TV series Game of Thrones, installed at “The Power of the Throne” at Paleis Het Loo. Photo courtesy of Paleis Het Loo.
The thrones gathered here range from historic examples, including an artifact of the Ashanti Empire in Ghana, to contemporary specimens like the East River Chairs, which accommodated speakers at 2019’s G20 Women’s Summit. The royal throne of King Willem-Alexander, the current Dutch monarch, serves as one of the show’s centerpieces, on loan from the Hague for the first (and apparently only) time. 
According to Coppes, the participation of the Dutch king has spurred the loan of another—possibly more beloved—chair. A replica of the Iron Throne, the coveted seat of the Seven Kingdoms in Games of Thrones, joins the exhibition as a prime example of how popular culture has shaped our appreciation of royal furniture.  
The chairs in the show are also accompanied by throne-centric artworks from the museum’s collection. Nicolaas Pieneman’s c.1840 painting immortalizing the inauguration of King Willem II depicts the grandeur of royal authority, just as Claes Jacobsz van der Heck’s The Judgement of Solomon (1616) captures its rare sagacity. A historical cartoon cheekily portraying the elder Willem I on a throne of cheese, however, dismantles that aura.
Claes Jacobsz van der Heck, The Judgement of Solomon (1616), installed at “The Power of the Throne” at Paleis Het Loo. Photo courtesy of Paleis Het Loo.
Alas, most of the thrones included in the show aren’t for sitting in. However, visitors are invited to plonk themselves on two seats: the Iron Throne and Alfred van Elk’s work Troon (Throne). The latter is a four-seat sculpture, crafted by the industrial designer with 288 wooden planks for the 2016 edition of Symposion Gorinchem. Its form, he said, was intended to reflect the “multiple truths and multiple beliefs” of his “ideal society.”  
According to Van Elk, he had the opportunity to speak with then Queen Beatrix about the work. “Of course, she is the one with experience when it comes to thrones,” he wrote of their interaction. “Even Queen Beatrix felt that the one sitting on a throne does not necessarily hold the truth.” 
See more views of the exhibition below. 
Alfred van Elk, Troon (Throne), installed at “The Power of the Throne” at Paleis Het Loo. Photo courtesy of Paleis Het Loo.
Installation view of “The Power of the Throne” at Paleis Het Loo. Photo courtesy of Paleis Het Loo.
Helen Verhoeven, The Family (2021), installed at “The Power of the Throne” at Paleis Het Loo. Photo courtesy of Paleis Het Loo.
Installation view of “The Power of the Throne” at Paleis Het Loo. Photo courtesy of Paleis Het Loo.
Installation view of “The Power of the Throne” at Paleis Het Loo. Photo courtesy of Paleis Het Loo.
“The Power of the Throne” is on view at Paleis Het Loo, Koninklijk Park 16, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, through March 10, 2024. 
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In Diego Velázquez’s cryptic Las Meninas (1656), a portrait session appears to be in progress. The young Infanta Margaret Theresa, King Philip IV of Spain’s first child, is resplendently posed in the center of the frame, encircled by her entourage and a dog. Velázquez himself, brush and palette in hand, is standing off to the side and gazing at a large canvas, suggesting that he is painting the scene we are seeing. Or maybe not. The only glimpse we get of the depicted canvas, alas, is its reverse.  
But for artist Miguel Ángel Blanco, Las Meninas invited a tantalizing contemplation of a rarely seen aspect of paintings. That thought has led him to curate a new exhibition at the Prado Museum in Madrid, which makes the case that a work of art is more than what’s on its face. 
“On the Reverse” features about 100 works by the likes of René Magritte, Vincent van Gogh, Goya, Sophie Calle and Michelangelo Pistoletto—pulled from the collections of the Prado and 29 other museums—displayed so their backs face the viewers. The rears of these canvases reveal whole other realities: some bear the artist’s sketches or seals, some are stamped with reminders of the work’s provenance, and others contain whole other paintings.
A possible self-portrait, attributed to Orazio Borgianni (1600–10). Courtesy of the Prado Museum.
“Works of art are three-dimensional,” the museum’s director, Miguel Falomir, told The Guardian. “When we focus solely on the image, which is a reproduction of a given moment frozen in time, we get some information, but we miss a lot when it comes to everything that the work means as an object.” 
The show is split into 10 chapters that variously explore the symbolism of the stretcher, painted trompe l’oeils depicting the rear of works, and the cuts and folds made to a canvas—still visible on its back—to adapt it to new locations or functions.  
Most intriguing are the sections exploring how the backs of paintings serve as extensions of its face, or the artist’s creative process. For instance, Annibale Carracci’s The Ecstasy of Mary Magdalene (1585–1600) has on its back drawings etched in black chalk by the Italian painter’s students. The reverse of a Vicente Palmaroli canvas, meanwhile, is jotted with the artist’s landscape and figure notes.
Martin van Meytens, Kneeling Nun (obverse) (c. 1731). Stockholm, Nationalmuseum. Courtesy of the Prado Museum.
Martin van Meytens, Kneeling Nun (reverso) (c. 1731). Stockholm, Nationalmuseum. Courtesy of the Prado Museum.
On view in a segment focused on two-sided paintings is a striking work that goes to the heart of the show. In Kneeling Nun (c. 1731), Swedish-Austrian court painter Martin van Meytens captured his titular figure bent over her devotional book in mid-prayer. Cheekily, on the reverse, he painted the same nun from the back, her habit pulled up to reveal her bare bottom.  
“It’s an excellent example of a pornographic image half-hidden on the reverse that belonged to the Swedish ambassador to Paris, who kept it hidden and only showed it to special guests,” Blanco explained. 
Vik Muniz, Verso (Las Meninas) (2018). Courtesy of the artist and the Elba Benítez Gallery
Las Meninas also shows up here. No, not the actual canvas, which is on view in the Prado’s Villanueva building, but a faithful reproduction of its back. The facsimile was created over a period of two years by Vik Muniz, who meticulously matched the dimensions and materials of the rear of this Velázquez work. The Brazilian artist even reproduced the same stains and rivets on the pinewood body, as well as the small plaque bearing the Prado’s inventory number.  
“The exhibition aims to remind us of something that I think Velázquez would also want us to consider if he were here,” said Falomir, “which is that art—and painting in particular—isn’t just about the image itself.” 
See more images from the exhibition below.  
Installation view of “On the Reverse” at the Prado Museum. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado.
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, Artist in his Studio (c. 1628). Boston, Museum of Fine Arts. Zoe Oliver Sherman Collection given in memory of Lillie Oliver Poor. Courtesy of the Prado Museum.
Sketches of figures on the reverse of Annibale Carracci, The Ecstasy of Mary Magdalene (1585–1600). La Coruña, Museo de Belas Artes da Coruña, depósito del Museo Nacional del Prado. Courtesy of the Prado Museum.
Salomon Koninck, A Philosopher (reverse) (1635). Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. Courtesy of the Prado Museum.
Zacarías González Velázquez, Two Fishermen, one with a Rod and the other seated (reverse) (1785). Madrid, Cuartel General del Ejército, depósito del Museo Nacional del Prado. Courtesy of the Prado Museum.
Installation view of “On the Reverse” at the Prado Museum. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado.
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior with the Artist’s Easel (1910). Copenhagen, SMK, National Gallery of Denmark. Courtesy of the Prado Museum.
Anonymous artist, The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John / Christ presented to the People (reverse) (c. 1500). Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. Courtesy of the Prado Museum.
“On The Reverse” is on view at the Prado Museum, C. de Ruiz de Alarcón, 23, Madrid, Spain, through March 3, 2024. 
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Encountering Earthly Paradise, Colombian sculptor Delcy Morelos’s fragrant dirt wall sculptures at the 2022 Venice Biennale, was an indisputable highlight of the international exhibition. Navigating the maze-like installation encouraged viewers to appreciate and engage with the earth—blended with hay, cassava flour, cacao powder, cloves, and cinnamon—in an entirely unexpected way, elevating the humble soil to the realm of fine art.
“The soil as a sacred element has been forgotten by contemporary civilization,” Morelos told me, speaking through a translator. “I like to show the earth/soil in a way that is has not been seen, so it appears very delicate, soft, and that it smells delicious. I make beautiful sculptures so that the earth/soil can be seen as beautiful.”
Though the biennale was something of a breakthrough moment for Morelos on the art-world stage, work was already well underway on her first U.S. solo show, which opened last month at the Dia Art Foundation in Chelsea.
“This has been one of the most complex projects that I have done,” Morelos said of the exhibition, which features two monumental new installations, Cielo terrenal (Earthly Heaven) and El abrazo (The Embrace). “We spent four years finding a way to make it happen.”
Delcy Morelos, Earthly Paradise (2022) at the Venice Biennale international exhibition, “The Milk of Dreams.” Photo by Ben Davis.
Both pieces continue to explore our relationship to the earth, and Morelos’s desire to make it more sustainable, in keeping with her indigenous heritage, descended from the Emberá, the native people of Panama and Colombia, on her grandmother’s side.
“Those who are making use of the land are not operating from a space of care and respect towards Mother Earth. The people who do are the ancestral cultures, for example in the Amazonian jungle, because they maintain thousand of years of traditions, caring for the jungle and the soil,” she said. “But it is not easy because people are always thinking about making money not protecting the earth. They don’t realize that when they destroy the land, they are destroying themselves, because we nourish ourselves from the earth, and we will return to the earth when we die.”
The show at Dia came about after a group trip that the foundation arranged to Colombia in 2019, on the occasion of Dan Flavin’s first show in the nation, at the Museo del Moderno de Medellin. Flavin, of course, is one of the artists at the core of Dia’s collection, which is focused on Minimalism and Land Art. But in recent years, the foundation has worked hard to expand its purview beyond the white male artists traditionally associated with those movements.
Colombia “was a learning trip,” said exhibition curator Alexis Lowry, who recently started a new job as curatorial director at Hauser and Wirth. “We visited Delcy’s studio and Jessica [Morgan, the director of Dia] and I walked out and immediately said ‘Well, that’s a show.’”
Delcy Morelos, Cielo terrenal (Earthly Heaven), 2023, at Dia Chelsea, New York (detail). Photo by Don Stahl, ©Delcy Morelos.
Visitors to the exhibition are first greeted by Cielo terrenal, in which Morelos has painted the floors and lower third of the gallery walls—up to the level of flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012—with a thin layer of water and acrylic binder mixed with soil sourced from Goshen, New York.
“Goshen is part of what’s known as the Black Dirt Region in the Hudson Valley. It’s incredibly rich in nutrients and some of the most fertile soil in the country,” Lowry said.
Morelos also used the soil mixture to coat various pieces of wood and lumber sourced from dumpsters at Dia’s outpost in Beacon, New York—remnants of construction projects from past exhibitions laid out in neatly stacked piles on the floor. The effect is a stark, monochromatic black.
“Delcy is really breathing new life into this material,” Lowry added. “She’s always done these earth-lined rooms with a consideration of life cycles and the idea that death fertilizes life—what is beneath the ground is composed of decay, but also constitutes growth.”
Delcy Morelos, El abrazo (The Embrace), 2023, at Dia Chelsea, New York (detail). Photo by Don Stahl, ©Delcy Morelos.
“The earth is expressed as the transforming matter of life in death and death in life,” Morelos agreed. She also wanted to incorporate earth from her native country, but import/export laws prevented her from shipping soil across international borders. Instead, the Dia fragments are paired with ceramics she made in Colombia from local black earth.
“They were made using this ancestral technique where you fire the clay over an open flame, so it both literally colors the ceramic, but also that color is then augmented naturally, with vegetal pigments,” Lowrey said.
“These elements are more organic, and they are remnants that are found in the jungle,” Morelos added. “It turns out that these elements that can be seeds, shells, and tree trunks that will nourish the plants that will be born in the future. There is a difference in form, but just the same, the elements from Dia can nourish the plants of the future.”
Less than two weeks after the artist’s New York debut, Morelos also opened her first solo show in France at Marian Goodman in Paris, where she just joined the roster. It is also the first time the 56-year-old artist has had formal gallery representation, despite having appeared in numerous biennials and institutional exhibitions.
There, Morelos created another site-specific installation for the gallery’s lower level, again painting part of the floor and walls with soil. But the exhibition also includes more market-friendly pieces, including hanging textiles and works on paper made over the past 20 years.
Installation view of “Delcy Morelos: El oscuro de abajo” at Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris. Photo courtesy of Marian Goodman.
These earlier works showcase Morelos’s first forays into natural materials, such as red pigments and jute fiber. A reverence for the earth and the cycle of life is the through line across her practice.
“I am a witch—a witch is a woman of wisdom who learns from nature and its secrets,” Morelos said. “I come from a lineage of ancestral knowledge, and I understand that the soil is nourishment.”
At Dia, the second gallery is the show’s titular work, El abrazo, a towering mound of earth liberally studded with individually placed stems of Hudson Valley hay. Lowry helped with the nearly two-month-long install process, and was chastised by the artist for attempting to insert multiple pieces at a time. “Delcy is the most detail-oriented artist you could possibly imagine,” the curator said.
Delcy Morelos installing El abrazo (The Embrace), 2023, at Dia Chelsea, New York. Photo by Don Stahl, ©Delcy Morelos.
Made from top soil recycled from a Manhattan roof garden, mixed with clay, an organic landscaping compound used to keep grass seed in place, and ground coconut husks, the piece is designed to be touched. Morelos found people were inevitably drawn to the earth at the Venice Biennale, and decided to embrace that impulse. She hopes this creates a sense of intimacy in the work, reminding the viewer of our ties to the earth.
In El abrazo, “the earth is a mountain that embraces you, because I think that people feel very alone living in the city and sometimes they need a hug,” Morelos said.
But the installation also appears to float above the gallery floor, its heavy mass improbably levitating in space in something of an engineering miracle.
“Because the earth is something that we always walk on, I wanted to elevate it,” the artist added, noting that the large scale is also meant to dwarf the viewer.
Both Dia installations take up the entirety of a dimly lit gallery. The aroma of Morelos’s earthen creations, which incorporate spices such as cinnamon and clove, hit your nose before your eyes adjust to the light, which is filtered through scrims installed on the skylights. (The artist recommends return visits with the changing seasons, to encounter the works under different lighting conditions.)
Delcy Morelos, El abrazo (The Embrace), 2023, at Dia Chelsea, New York (detail). Photo by Don Stahl, ©Delcy Morelos.
Olfactory elements have been a key part of her practice for least a dozen years, after Morelos was inspired to try and use soil to make cookies that recalled the scent of maternal milk, mixing in cacao butter, brown sugar, beeswax, cinnamon, and cloves. Over the years, she’s refined that process to give her more control over the organic elements, to prevent fermentation, mold, or fungus.
For Morelos, it’s important that her work activates the “senses that we have forgotten, such as the sense of touch and smell—too much importance is given to vision” she said. “The sense of smell activates our memories, and the memory will take you to those happy moments where you once were in the forest.”
But the artist is also looking to the future, with a career survey set to open at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis in March. It will feature work from the 1990s through to today, including a site-specific monumental earth work.
“The sculpture at the Pulitzer is about the obsession of being owners of the land. People put up nets, fences, and railings to delineate and separate land, saying this is ‘mine’ and that is ‘not mine,’” Morelos said. “But it is absurd to think that we can be owners of the earth. We form part of the earth and we are united with her—we are not her proprietors.”
Quotes from Morelos were translated by Amparo Vollert.
“Delcy Morelos: El abrazo” is on view at Dia Chelsea, 537 West 22nd Street, New York, New York, October 5, 2023—July 2024.
“Delcy Morelos: El oscuro de abajo” is on view at Galerie Marian Goodman, 79 and 66 Rue du Temple, 75003 Paris, October 14–December 21, 2023.
“Delcy Morelos: Interwoven” will be on view at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri, March 8–August 4, 2024.
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Beyond the Streets, the wildly popular Los Angeles initiative with a focus on graffiti and street art, founded several years ago by Roger Gastman, has just unveiled the latest group show at its physical gallery space on North La Brea Avenue. Curated by Mister Cartoon (aka Max Machado), “Under Pressure” examines contemporary airbrush artwork.
One of the most buzzed about artists in the show, whose work has already sold out, is a relative newcomer to the gallery scene. That’s because Gustavo Zermeño Jr., who was born and raised in nearby Venice had been heavily focused on murals before his work caught Gastman’s eye and he encouraged him to start working with canvas too.
“I’ve been focusing on murals for the past six years. To be honest, it’s difficult for muralists to navigate the art world,” Zermeño told Artnet. “They’re massive and tend to go ‘viral’ more easily. I was on my own,” he said. But between the public visibility and his social media presence, his work caught the eye of bigger and bigger companies that led to collaborations with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Rams, UCLA, and Nike.
Gustavo Zermeño Jr. in front of his work at the opening of the group show “Under Pressure” at Beyond the Streets gallery in Los Angeles. Photo: Stewart Cook.
While Zermeño welcomed the attention, he also wanted to keep the focus on the art itself. Working on murals has taken him to previously unknown pockets of L.A. that the artist says he thought he already knew so well. “Each mural takes about a week or two, so I get to eat at the restaurants, hang out with the owners, talk to the same lady who walks her dog and stops by every day. That became one of my favorite things…just to interact with the community.”
Now Zermeño has brought that same spirit to his canvases with detailed L.A. street scenes in a beautifully rendered palette, depicting everything from the sidewalks outside Dodger Stadium to oceanfront streets and the distinctive lights and architecture of the sidewalks around Venice Beach.
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Most of the pieces on view in the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s (MIA) new “In Our Hands” survey of Native photography from 1890 to now were lent directly by the artists who made them. That’s rare for museum shows like this one, which tend to rely on loans from public and private collections. Here, the condition speaks to a truth that goes beyond MIA: few institutions, if any, have a substantial collection of this kind of work. 
“In Our Hands” is not the first exhibition of Native photography, of course. Even if the show could somehow lay claim to such a title, it wouldn’t, explained Jaida Grey Eagle, an Oglala Lakota photographer who guest-organized the presentation alongside MIA’s in-house curators Ahlberg Yohe and Casey Riley. 
“I don’t look at this as a beginning,” Grey Eagle said, alluding to the colonialist logic of racing to be the first to put a name on something. “I look at it as an acknowledgment. There have been many people who have dedicated their lives to this medium and I don’t ever want to erase their work.” The show, she went on, is about “honoring the knowledge that has been there and that museums have failed to support.” 
View of the exhibition “In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, October 22, 2023 – January 14, 2024. Courtesy of MIA.
If the exhibition’s lack of loans speaks to a broader issue, it also underlines one of its central themes: community. Early one, Ahlberg Yohe, Grey Eagle, and Riley assembled a Curatorial Council of 14 artists and academics, most of Native heritage, who developed the list of participating artists and weighed in on the language used to describe their work.  
The group also shaped the show’s three sections, each conceived with an emphasis on the present tense, regardless of the historical work included. “A World of Relations” looks at Native cultures’ holistic—not anthropocentric—view of living things; “Always Leaders” recognizes longstanding indigenous efforts around issues such as human rights, sustainability, and land preservation; and “Always Present” celebrates Native photographers who have used their medium to convey the vitality of their cultures.  
“’In Our Hands’ was structured through conversations with Indigenous artists and scholars from its inception, so there never were ‘outside’ voices. This was a project that grew organically from our conversations with the folks who became our Curatorial Council,” Riley explained in an email. 
“Our reasons for this were simple: we knew that centering their voices would be paramount in correcting historical narratives that erased Native people’s expertise. This project is built upon the work of people who came before us, who have been doing this work for a long time and should be the focus of scholarship from here on.” 
Nadya Kwandibens, Tee Lyn Duke (née Copenace) Toronto, ON, March (2010). Courtesy of the artist and Red Works Photography.
Advisory committees like this have become increasingly common in recent years as museum workers grapple with the question of how to communicate cultural experiences beyond their own. That same question is what first drew Grey Eagle to photography as a reservation kid in South Dakota; it’s what pushed her to help develop the MIA show too. 
“Growing up, I experienced a lot of journalists coming in,” she said, referring to her home community in South Dakota. “These were journalists flying across oceans to tell our story. As I got older, I started to notice that the articles that were coming out about my home community failed to encompass the entire story. They were always coming in to talk about strife. They never seemed to talk about why.” 
To introduce readers to “In Our Hands,” Grey Eagle picked out several representative works to highlight. 

Benjamin Alfred Haldane, Self-portrait in Studio in Metlakatla (c. 1919–20) 
Benjamin A. Haldane, Self-portrait in Studio in Metlakatla (c. 1919–20). Courtesy of MIA.
Just the Facts: A foundational figure among Native and First Nation photographers, Benjamin Alfred Haldane made studio portraits of members of his Tsimshian community in Alaska at the turn of the 20th century. He often filled the frame with props that represented his subjects—an approach that imbued his work with a semiotic charge. He took the same tact for this expertly composed self-portrait from 1919 or 1920. 
Expert Insights: “He uses all of these props to represent himself—to say, ‘This is what I do in the community,’” said Grey Eagle. “But on his arm, he has propped up a model totem pole, which is his clan crest—the wolf clan. The intentionality of choosing to connect his body to his heritage is so powerful to me. It’s such a rooted statement of who he is as a Tsimshian man.”  

Faye HeavyShield, Clan (2020)  
Installation view of Faye HeavyShield’s Clan (2020). Courtesy of MIA.
Just the Facts: One of the exhibition’s best-known artists, Faye HeavyShield makes sculptures, installations, and other artworks that are minimal in design, but broad in valence. At the core of what she does is the interrogation of the relationship—physical, spiritual—between land and body. HeavyShield was inspired to create Clan upon discovering a 1920s portrait of her grandmother. The work comprises a set of inkjet portraits, as well as a series of hanging canvas dresses. 
Expert Insights: “She wanted to create this connection between her grandmother and her daughters and granddaughters that was beyond stories and memories,” Grey Eagle said, in reference to the portrait that inspired the artist. “I love Faye’s work because it’s sculptural, but it moves. There’s a lot of tactility within the show…It’s a way that I see Native photographers using [the medium] in this really incredible new way.” 
 
Eve-Lauryn LaFountain, You Are on Native Land (2020)  
Eve-Lauryn LaFountain, You Are on Native Land: Niibidoon (Weave) (2020). Courtesy of the artist and MIA.
Just the Facts: As part of a recent series, Eve-Lauryn LaFountain scratched the phrase “You Are on Native Land” across strips of found film that she had woven together. The artist then sent her creations to collaborator Cody Edison, who in turn printed them as contact sheets. Now, these images are available for purchase as postcards, which are, according to the artists, meant to “act not as souvenirs of places from the sender, but rather as a reminder to the receiver that America was founded on the genocide and stolen lands of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.” Proceeds from the project have been put toward supporting activists who were arrested in 2020 during a protest for the return of the Black Hills to the Lakota people. Three postcards hang in the “Always Leaders” section of the show. 
Expert Insights: For LaFountain, You Are on Native Land extends beyond the postcards, Grey Eagle pointed out: “[LaFountain] would research the indigenous histories of each recipient’s address and write about the land that the postcards were going to.” The examples in the exhibition acknowledge the Dakota people, original caretakers of the land on which MIA sits, the curator added. 
 
Jeremy Dennis, Door Prop (2018)  
Jeremy Dennis, Door Prop (2018). Courtesy of the artist.
Just the Facts: In this moody photograph, a white woman cowers before an encroaching group of Native men, all dressed in stereotypic garb. The shot belongs to Dennis’s “Rise” series, which appropriates horror movie motifs as a way of reframing America’s colonization, displacement, and genocide of Native peoples.  
Expert Insights: With Door Prop, Dennis reanimates “classic zombie movie aesthetics but replaces zombies with Native Americans,” Grey Eagle said. “He does that to frame white people’s fear of Native American people as this manifestation of [their own] wrongdoing. In his imagined uprising, Native people cannot be ignored. Their presence has to be acknowledged.” 
Fittingly, Dennis’s artwork lives in “Always Present,” the exhibition’s last section. “I love that we leave on that,” Grey Eagle added. “When people talk about Native people, they always use past tense language. I hate that we have to say, ‘We’re still here,’ because we’ve always been here and we’re always going to be here.” 
“In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now” is on view through January 14, 2024 at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. 

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